Death*Star Hip Hophttp://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/Death*Star - Nerdcore from the NorthwestThu, 26 Jan 2017 08:35:33 +0000Death*Staren-USSquarespace V5 Site Server v5.13.482-273 (http://www.squarespace.com)Political Depression and the State of Death*StarDeath*StarThu, 26 Jan 2017 07:51:07 +0000http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/political-depression-and-the-state-of-deathstar.html498449:5685567:35851523We're still screwing around. We're recording stuff, we're setting up shows for the spring and summer. We've got some exciting things and not exciting things in the future. Just didn't want you to think we were gone. Unemployment, divorce, marriage, and a rough election season has us strung out but we're not out entirely. Follow our facebooks individually or us as a group.

Oh and be excited for this thing, because it is indeed a thing you should be excited for. This or another EP is coming out shortly (depending on who finishes what first) but for those who followed C0splay's team in the Vocalist Producer Challenge this year they may be familiar with it. Some new versions of those songs are coming,and they're coming hardcore. Unusual - Last Track on one of our upcoming EPs, Pastrami Sandwich

]]>http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/rss-comments-entry-35851523.xml5 Types of Fan It's Okay to Be (Despite Popular Opinion)Death*StarFri, 06 May 2016 22:37:44 +0000http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/5-types-of-fan-its-okay-to-be-despite-popular-opinion.html498449:5685567:356796511. It is totally fine to start listening to a musician's work only after they've died and find out that you really like it. Sometimes that's just how it happens with art; you had no idea it was something you'd be into until there was a reason to pay attention to it.2. It's totally okay to become a bandwagon fan because your team started winning. It's hard to root for a team that loses all the time. There's seriously nothing wrong with being a bandwagon fan because it's fun to cheer for winners and feel like you're a part of something. Just try to have the fortitude to keep being a fan even if they stop winning, and hold on to how it feels to be a part of the team that roots for people. It's good to root for people.3. It is completely acceptable to be the fan that has no grasp of the deeper lore of the thing. You can just like one particular Doctor on Dr. Who. You can be a brand-new Star Wars fan who actually doesn't know a lot about series lore. You can only like the recent Star Trek movies and have no interest in the previous films or shows. People who know more about the subject than you are not gatekeepers to the fandom -- they're just different kinds of fans.4. It is absolutely fine to only like one small part of a larger type of thing. Do you only like Pokemon and not any other kind of video game? Only a fan of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, but other anime leaves you bored? Do you like superhero movies but not comic books or cartoons? This is fine. It's good that you found the thing that appeals to you; there's nothing wrong with liking that and only that. It's like liking oranges but not lemons, limes, or grapefruit -- just a matter of taste.5. It is 100% normal to be the fan who loves something but hates something about it. Star Wars doesn't have enough strong females for you? Firefly is great but you hate the theme song? Love comic books but find the weird conventions of sequential art offputting at times? No one says you have to love everything about the things you love. It's totally fine to admit that there are parts of things you love that drive you crazy -- we do this in relationships all the time -- so long as you don't let it turn you into a hater. No one likes the person who can't do anything except complain about a thing they claim to love. Try to tone that shit down.

- 3PO ]]>http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/rss-comments-entry-35679651.xmlDisk Space EPCollaborationsNew Musicepsfalloutfallout 4hard rock cafeklopfenpopnew releasestrack listszilla personaDeath*StarMon, 04 Jan 2016 19:59:39 +0000http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/disk-space-ep.html498449:5685567:35575037As presented to you by our good friend Ash -- without whom this EP would not have been necessary, so blame him if you hate it -- Death*Star presents to you all... Disk Space.

Though not on-beat, we did eventually blurt out the line we were assigned.

Some people would say an 11-track EP is an album. Those people are correct. For us, however, unless it has 21 tracks (at least 15 of which are songs), it's not a Death*Star album. So this... this is an EP.

Disk Space is a collection of tracks about and inspired by science fiction games modern, aged, and ancient alike. We brought along our pals Klopfenpop and Zilla Persona to sing a couple of hooks; we pilfered soundtracks, scores, and fan tracks to craft in-theme beats; we read a LOT of Wikipedia and game-wiki articles to do research. We smoked scores of hookah bowls dry.

Here's the track list, kids. I'll have the lyrics for you in the next week or so. For now, go listen to it, and hopefully enjoy it.

01. This is No Game [Skit]

02. Space Rocks (Asteroids)

03. The Gulf (Star Citizen) [featuring Zilla Persona]

04. Diamond in the Rough (Fallout 4)

05. Command or Conquer (Mass Effect)

06. The Games We Play [Skit]

07. Never Safe, Never Alone (X-Com) [featuring Klopfenpop]

08. Light at teh End of the Tunnel (Fallout 3)

09. Planet (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri)

10. The Voice in the Darkness (Starcraft)

11. It's a Blizzard Out There [Skit]

Don't worry; this ends 2015 and begins 2016 for us, but we've got more in the works. We were working on this while working on a few other things, too. - 3PO

]]>http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/rss-comments-entry-35575037.xmlWhat Did You Expect?ApologiesNew MusicDeath*StarTue, 29 Dec 2015 22:44:43 +0000http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/what-did-you-expect.html498449:5685567:35570745Remember how we were gonna release an EP on December 25th like the world's worst Santas?

Remember what I said in the post just below this one when I made that announcement?

Amusingly, this isn't actually entirely our fault. See, all of the beats were done, all of the verses and hooks recorded and leveled, and the EP was in the process of being mixed. While this was occurring, C0splay informed me that some issues we'd had with guest vocals could not in fact be fixed by the supplementary vox we'd recorded.

What does that mean? Well, we have some guest vocalists on this EP (mainly for hooks), and we really loved what they sent us, but in a few cases there were slight errors in recording/delivery that needed fixing. We'd tried to go the quick route and just record ourselves doing backing vocals to shore up the missing pieces, but apparently what we ended up with was just garbage. C0s said, "Okay, so we can just release it as-is, because it's pretty damn good", and Bill Beats was like, "Whatever, I've put enough work into this project", and then someone was a killjoy.

I am that someone.

I want this EP to be good. It won't be great, because hey, let's face facts; it's our EP. But instead of embracing our laziness (like we always do) and putting out a product that's just okay, I wanted to fix the errors and put out something good.

The problem is that going this route means we needed to go back to collaborators on the track and say, "Hey, thanks, but you need to re-record that". When you do something like that -- no matter how nice you are about it, and I was really nice, because these folks are doing us the favor of being on our EP and we're the ones being picky about it -- the reality is that you're gonna get those re-recorded vox when you get them.

C0splay says that the EP will still be out this year, but it may be New Year's Eve before you get it. I say it's going to be out really soon, because New Year's Eve is two days away and I really don't know when we're gonna get those hooks. Time's gonna tell, as always.

Will the EP be worth the wait? Probably not, but you may enjoy it anyway.

C0splay has written a check that I am now forced to cash by declaring that our next EP, Disk Space, will be released on December 25th. Now, I could totally hedge and be like, "no year was listed", but I'm not gonna do that; I'm gonna try for this goal, and when we fail, I'm going to shrug and say, "What did you expect?".

In the meantime, why don't we listen to something finished? Since Disk Space is all about science fiction video games, it only makes sense that the EP include a track about Fallout 4. I give you... "Diamond in the Rough".

We're from Seattle, and the Emerald City is where you can be any kind of geek at any time and the people are with you. You wanna geek out about Dungeons & Dragons? Cool; Wizards of the Coast in the house. You wanna geek out about weird music? We brought The Presidents of the United States of America to you. Feel like geeking out about Adventure Time? The Land of Oz may as well be the Land of Ooo.

You wanna geek out about football? PacNW nerds LOVE them some football. Does your team have a fan army?

We have a Hulk.

Preseason starts tonight, Death*Starmy. Go 12s! - 3PO

]]>http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/rss-comments-entry-35443886.xmlWe Went Down on YouDeath*StarWed, 01 Jul 2015 18:31:09 +0000http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/we-went-down-on-you.html498449:5685567:35393139We were informed the other day that this site was down. Obviously, we had no idea; why would we know what was going on with our web site? As it turns out, the domain name was billed to an expired credit card, the phone number on file was an office number at a place we no longer work, the email address listed idled out ages ago, and the physical address hasn't been current in several years. We really know how to make ourselves unreachable.

But don't you worry; this period of brief web site inactivity is not reflective of our offline activity. We've been way more inactive IRL.

Chat at you soon, Death*Starmy. - 3PO

]]>http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/rss-comments-entry-35393139.xmlWords are Wind EPNew Musica song of ice and firebooksepsgame of thronesgeorge r.r. martinDeath*StarThu, 07 May 2015 21:36:15 +0000http://deathstarhiphop.squarespace.com/main/words-are-wind-ep.html498449:5685567:35334728Words Are Wind by Death*Star

Words are Wind, the A Song of Ice and Fire EP sampler, is now available online at the low, low price of "Meh, whatever".

The goal of this EP was to serve as a selection of Westeros-inspired tracks that will later be split up to inspire themed EPs for different aspects of George R.R. Martin's series, and we hope we've accurately captured the story and feel of both the novels and the Game of Thrones television show.